Carl Edwards never got to celebrate his first pole position of the season at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.

In fact he was relaxing in his motorhome when NASCAR announced his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford will start first in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Aaron’s 499.

Rain washed out regular qualifying at the 2.66-mile oval and starting positions were awarded according to fastest laps recorded during Friday’s two practice sessions.

Edwards was on top of the leaderboard when those sessions ended with a lap of 199.675 m.p.h.

Martin Truex Jr. will start second in the No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota after a best lap of 199.650 m.p.h. and Marcos Ambrose will start third in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford when he lapped the track at 199.608 m.p.h.

Edwards said that everybody was aware on Friday the weather forecast called for rain Saturday and qualifying was likely going to be cancelled.

“It was actually pretty exciting for all the teams, because we looked at this forecast, and we were all concerned that there wasn’t going to be single-car qualifying,” he said. “It was like a heat race out there.

“Everyone was doing everything they could to lag back and partner up and get the fastest lap times they could.

“We got the fastest lap with about one minute to go. That was our whole mission (Friday), and I’m pretty proud of the fact that we ended up with the fastest time.”

Edwards said he was disappointed, however, that he will not get the automatic spot in the Sprint Unlimited race that will kick off the 2014 season next February at Daytona that goes to pole winners.

It is the second time he has been snubbed for that honour.

He finished second to Matt Kenseth for the pole at Kansas last month and when Kenseth was disqualified Edwards he would not automatically move up

“I texted (NASCAR boss) Mike Helton and said, ‘Hey, what do you think? Do we get the pole award?’ And he said, ‘LOL.’

“I didn’t think it was that funny — and then this.”

Edwards did agree that while it will be nice to start first, the pole spot really does not mean much when it comes to restrictor-plate racing.

In a 500-mile race at a 2.66-mile high-banked oval like Talladega, there are just too many variables to make starting positions a factor.

“This race, this track, everything about it is it’s so chaotic and unpredictable that I think the stats really don’t mean much here,” Edwards said. “You could have all the stats in the world, but someone could win this race that’s not even on the radar up until that victory, so I’m definitely happy that we’ve got a fast car and that we’re starting up front, that’s good — but anything can happen.

“The last lap of this race could turn the field inside-out and anything could happen.”

In the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying Saturday for the Sao Paulo Indy 300 in Brazil, Chevrolets dominated the final six with Ryan Hunter-Reay winning the pole on a lap of one minute, 20.4312 seconds around the 4.080-km temporary street course. His Andretti Autosport teammate E.J. Viso was second fastest at 1:20.7380 with Dario Franchitti third in the Target Ganassi Racing Honda at 1:20.8922. Brazilian native Tony Kanaan was fourth fastest at 1:20.9812 in a KV Racing Technology Chevrolet and Canada’s James Hinchcliffe was fifth at 1:20.9893 in a third Andretti Chevrolet. Scott Dixon rounded out the top six in a Ganassi Honda at 1:21.1183. Alex Tagliani, the other Canadian in the race, will start 15th in the Barracuda Racing Honda after a lap of 1:21.8636. ... NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kurt Busch will test an Andretti Autosport IndyCar Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motors Speedway next Thursday, and the former Cup champion said he is open to attempting the Indy 500 in the future.